YELLOW WOODWREN. 367 



others the quills and tail are more or less worn. As the 

 season advances, the yellowish edgings of the wings and tail 

 gradually disappear, and the lower parts become of a purer 

 white. 



Male and Female in Summer. — Towards the end of summer, 

 the colour of the upper parts of the male is yellowish-brown 

 tinged with grey ; the wings and tail wood-brown ; the lower 

 parts nearly pure white. By the middle of June the female is 

 of a nearly uniform greyish-brown above, and the yellow on 

 the fore-neck is almost obliterated. The new plumage is com- 

 pleted by the middle of September. 



Habits. — The Yellow Woodwren arrives from the 20th of 

 April to the middle of May, and immediately betakes itself to 

 woods and thickets, where it may be found during the summer 

 in most parts of England and in the southern and middle divi- 

 sions of Scotland. Its flight is rapid and undulatory, and it 

 glides among the branches with extreme agility, in pursuit of 

 insects, which it occasionally also follows to a short distance 

 on wing. It is generally seen on trees, often on those of large 

 size, and prefers woods and plantations to thickets or gardens. 

 While flitting about it now and then emits a protracted rather 

 feeble cheep ; and its song, which it performs while perched 

 on a twig, is, like that of the next species, soft, modulated, and 

 short, being as it were a repetition of the syllable ticee, the first 

 notes prolonged, the last rapid, and forming, as Sweet expresses 

 it, a ' ' shrill shaking sort of note, which may be heard at a 

 great distance, and cannot be confounded with the song of any 

 other bird." " When it first arrives," as the same author 

 states, " it continues to sing nearly all day long, and its song 

 is continued more or less through most part of the summer, 

 except the time that it is engaged in feeding its young ; it is 

 then discovered by a dull mournful sort of call, quite different 

 from that of any other bird. It may be easily watched to its 

 nest, which is built on the ground, in a thicket of small bushes, 

 and consists of moss and dried leaves, with a covering at the 

 top of the same materials, so that it is scarcely possible to dis- 



